DeezyDoesIt

3rd in California at 175! Cali guys getting work in during the wrestle offs!

A barbershop quartet, and people are complaining! Sounds pleasant to me! Shahbazyan won state at 165 last year, no easy feat in one division California, so I suspected he might be a little under ranked. I was a little surprised to see him up at 184, but he looks a good size. If he can improve his riding, he might make a little noise at a weight that opens up below the top 4.

I think this was a bump up for a show. Tyler seems like a natural 133 size-wise.

Is there a link where you found this?

125 Lilledahl 133 Blaze 141 Ono 149 SVN 157 James 165 Mesenbrink 174 Duke 184 Welsh 197 Barr HWT Mirasola Depending on how you feel about Ono, I think this would be the "best" team. Could also switch Duke/MM, but Duke looks like he has the strength for 174, and Haines made the 2 weight class jump, so why not PJ? You could make the argument that everyone of these guys could make the final save HWY. Not saying I believe it, but you could make the argument.

This actually turned out not so bad. Sure, bummer to not have 3 of the top six, but still lots of good teams and many specific wrestlers and matchups that will be interesting. Not perfect, but should still be fun. Also, good spread between the big three conferences. Hopefully we get more inter-conference matchups.

Is there a link to the sign ups? The link above only has who has qualified.

Of all the Stanford guys, Provo is probably the highest floor and ceiling. Was in every single match even the ones he lost to LL and Ventresca. And then he actually wiped the back of the bracket on the way to 3rd. He is an upgrade for every program except PSU, OSU, VT.

- Several key, bigger weight starters from Ohio State are exploring options and have confirmed high asking prices. This was from the Xeet above. Any guesses here? Fishback on the move again? They do seem to have a logjam at 197, so could see a couple possibly move on there, but the Xeet does say "starters." Feldman wouldn't be going anywhere, would he?

Zeno Moore coming in next year too. Could probably compete with that group at 157.

Ha, I am relatively new, and I was using Bob as a thumbs up at first. But recently, I had this same thought, so I switched to the wrestle emoji. I like mixing it in for chaos, so may start that.

Cardenas seems like a natural 157 to me, got unlucky on the draw to finish blood round. Think he is a true title contender staying at 57 depending on who is there next year. Parco was great in the tourney, but I think he will be better back down at 149 eventually, maybe in another year if Valencia moves up to 57 when Cardenas leaves. I like Garvin and Norman better at 65/74. Seen Garvin on a few UNI/ISU/Iowa lineups also, but I think he stays. Was at NCAAs with the team and on the floor celebrating when Aden won. He looks pretty bought in, but you never know in this portal era. Heavy is the biggest question mark. There are a few 197s that can maybe bulk up and there is a freshman coming in. I'm not sure they have a portal option. The tried and true strategy for the football and basketball teams have been to poach from the Ivys, Mueller maybe? Maybe if Semenenko has a non-Ivy extra year. Mostly just wishful thinking.

Not a full match, but in the 125lb 3rd place match between Provo and Robinson, Robinson did something I've never seen before. Late in the 3rd period (1:43:00 on Mat 2 on Matcast), trying to escape from bottom, Robinson stood up and Provo dropped to single and then elevated Robinson's leg to shoulder height. Robinson then full backflipped off his single standing leg. It almost worked as Provo lost control of his other leg, but he quickly covered to prevent the escape. Ultimately came to nothing, but I rewatched like five times and laughed each time. Probably one of the most athletic moves I've seen this year.

Don't mind me, just daydreaming that Stanford had gotten Coby Merrill to stay in California. Heavy is big hole, but have never really seen Stanford actively recruit in the portal, but maybe times change...

Rasmussen pins AJ round one.

He doesn't even have that hard of a path. Certainly, Shapiro is tough out, but compared to the road Robideau has with possibly Zerban R2 and Larkin in the quarters. 157 is the weight I am most excited about. Truly think any of the top 12 seeds could win. There are some really good R2 matches, and pretty much every quarter should be a banger. Plus, most of these guys want to wrestle and put points on the board. 133 lost a little shine with Jax/Seidel and Blaze/Davino on the same sides. Also, it is more top heavy. Aside from Larkin, don't think anyone can really hang with the top four.

Byrd loses R1 to Shawver. Anyone said that yet? That's my call.

This is actually funny. Either this was a long, hard discussion in the room, or they just flipped a coin. Possibly both.

I agree that selfishly I wanted to see Jax/Blaze and Seidel/Davino in semis, but from an optimist's standpoint, now we will likely get a new matchup for all the marbles in the championship! And possibly one in the 3rd place match. Fun!

I see this point, and it would certainly be one thing if he went undefeated against cherry-picked competition with tight margins. But if you are wrecking multiple wrestlers in the top ten? I do think he earned it. I think Barr is actually a decent comparison, showed up late from injury, kills all his competition in second half. Barr has probably wrestled a weaker schedule then Jax (no shade, he wrestled everyone that was in front of him), it's just that 197 is a way weaker weight class with only 1 guy that could also make a claim for #1, so no one really cares.

I think we are underestimating how much work that tech of Ayala did for Jax. Hard to compare wrestlers that haven't competed against each other, but when you look at results vs common opponents, that one really stands out. I get that he doesn't have the quantity of wins, but quality is off the charts.

Provo should be ahead of Robinson - he beat him twice this year. Agree on Knox. Good wrestler, but clearly outside of the cream of the crop at 133. Think Cardenas should get consideration at 157. Tough bracket, but he was only outclassed early in the year by Robideau. Zerban/Cannon have been out/not looking great, so he should be ahead of them, maybe even Watters despite early season loss. Also, Posada finished ahead of Stout at ACC's and just beat him in the dual.

This is great work. Thanks!

I actually had a question about this move - there is a replay of it at 6:10. How is that legal? It looks like he wrenches the knee completely out of socket and, when you see where Provo's knee ended up at the end at 6:15, it seems really lucky Provo wasn't seriously injured. Maybe just me, but I did not like seeing that.

@SplitTheG Did you Stanford has a wrestling program? Some pretty good guys on the team too. You should check it out.